Chapter 1

//.1

 

   I actually wake up early.. That's a new surprise for me. So anyways, I'm up at 6:30am and I head downstairs for some breakfast. My hair is all messed up, but that's ok. Nothing a short shower can't fix later.

   I see dad already left for work, so it's just me, mom, and my puppy, Sundae at the breakfast table (no, Sundae doesn't actually sit at the table).

"Is Karen awake yet, mom?" I asked, pouring myself a glass of milk.

"Not that I know of.. She usually doesn't get up 'til 10 to 7 anyways." She constantly glances out the window.

"What's up, mom?" I chuckle a bit.

She let out a sigh. "Ohh.. Well I feel like going out to paint the bushes.. I just need to decide where I want to do it. Y'know, where the light will be just perfect or what angle I should be sitting at."

   My mom is an artist, and a great one. She paints the most beautiful paintings anyone has ever seen! Well, to me they're the beautiful, but she doesn't sell as many. It's not exactly realism, but again it's not abstract. She seems to add a special touch to her artwork that most artists don't. It's almost as if every brush stroke tells a story.

"Well, it will turn out great mom." I smile at her and then I go grab a bowl of cereal.

   At 7:00 I'm done eating and Karen is just getting up. I quickly run to the shower before she can get there, because she takes forever, which is one of the reasons why I'm usually late in the morning.

"Sam!! Sam!! Samanthaaaa!!" She banged on the bathroom door. "Hurry up!"

"Well hey, this is what you do to me, so suck it up and wait." I managed to say while brushing my teeth.

   I took a quick 5-minute shower and was out by 7:26. Karen takes waaay too long a shower, when she finally got out it was 10 minutes to 8. Mom was rushing us out of the door, I almost forgot my cell phone! I ran all the way back upstairs and noticed I left the radio on in my room too.

"Sheesh, have I lost my head today or what?" Right when I was about to turn the radio off, guess what come on?

"Good morning Seattle! Here's that new song from B.Gen that just released on iTunes at midnight!" The D.J. recited.

New song? Already? And it hit iTunes at midnight?! I decided to listen in.

The song began to play. "A'ight, here it is, Love and Lies by none other than B.GEN!!" The D.J. played the siren sound effect and the song echoed in.

   I heard my mom honk her car horn from outside. I stuck my head out the window and I could see Karen mouthing 'Hurry up, we're late!'. So I shut the radio off, grabbed my cell, and ran off.

Karen snorted as I got into the car. "What was that?!"

"What was what?" I quickly strapped on my seatbelt.

"We're already late, and you choose now to lounge around in your room?"

"I wasn't lounging." I glanced at the radio. "Hold on."

"No holding on, we're on the go!" Mom hollered and pulled out of the drive way.

   I surfed the radio for the channel where B.Gen's song was playing, when I finally found it, Karen screamed and shocked my mom so bad we almost hit a pedestrian.

"KAREN, SHUT UP!" My mom yelled. "God, are you trying to get me arrested?!"

"I'm sorry mom, but it's a Blue Generations song! I gotta hear it!" She demanded to turn up the volume.

Even my little sister is obessed with this trash band.

   I missed the first minute and a half of the song, but it was just getting back to the chorus whilst we were approaching Karen's school.

 

♫ Too dark to see, too bright to open your eyes, and you see right through me.. C-C-C-C-CAN'T YOU SEE?? I'm loving you and lieing for you. C-C-C-C-CAN'T YOU HEAR?? I'm singing out, just for you..! ♫

 

    Typical, I'm thinking. Just another heartbreaker song. Yeah, he loves you, but he lies to you, and you just look through him.. See, their lyrics don't even make sense! Nevermind the catchy beat, the lyrics are just as important!

"Mom, can't I wait 'til the song is over?" Karen whined.

Mom gave her a stern look. "No, get your butt out of the car and off to class."

   Karen pouted then grabbed her shoulder bag and leaped off to the rest of her 8th grade year. And to think, next year she'll be in highschool. At my highschool, I thought.

   I had enough of that song. I clicked off the radio and sat slugishly in my seat. The sun was just peeking out from behind a few clouds. I prayed it would be warm later on, I've had enough of this cold weather.

   At 8:04 I get to school. Luckily for me you're not late until 8:15, but it still meant I had to hustle to my locker and then to my first period class.

   The second I walked inside the building was like B.Gen Palooza. Their songs blasted through speakers and iPod heaphones from down the hall, I could hear the chatter of B.Gen rumors and see posters in people's (mostly girls') lockers.

Someone save me.. I'm in Pop Fever Hell. I ducked my head and braced myself as the hoarding crowd came rushing by me to get to class.

   Luckily I made it to my locker all in one piece. Weird I haven't seen any of my friends yet, I'm always the last one late to school, but I haven't seen Jay, Mikayla, or Lisa yet!

"GOOD MORNING!!!" Jay and Lisa come out of no where and scream in my face.

"BWAAAAAAH!!!" I get so startled and kneed myself in the locker door. "Oooow!!" I gritted my teeth.

"Oh my!" Lisa walked around me. "You're giving off such a bad aura. I can feel it!"

"Oh, can you now?" I rolled my eyes.

"Haha, you know she's just playing with you." said Jay.

"I know I know." I spun the lock on my locker and opened it with some force.

"Hmm," Lisa walked up next to me. "You do seem kind of toned down. What's up?"

   I couldn't possibly tell my best girl-friend-since-second-grade that I absolutely hated her favorite pop band in the world. And Jay, well... He likes them, but he's not as hardcore a fan so I don't worry about him. Mikayla is a big fan of them as well, so when she shows up I wouldn't want to tell her either.

"Helloooo? Earth to Samantha Young!" I saw Lisa's hand waving in front of my face.

"Oh right, uh.. I'm just really tired this morning.. And I nearly got trampled by those derranged fans in the main hall." I guess its ok I used derranged... right?

"Derranged? You mean the B.Gen fans? Nooo, they're just really excited and happy, like me! Heehee!" She spun around.

   Ah, Lisa, how have you sustained yourself with such happiness all these years? Seriousily, I wonder if sometimes it's impossible to make her upset.

"Ha, stop lyin." Jay looked at me. "She doesn't like that group, Liz."

"What?" Lisa said, then turned to me. "Why not?!"

"I'm sorry... I just don't really like them." I hate them.

  It seemed to get quiet for about a good 25 seconds, and then Lisa finally broke the silence with an out-of-the-blue statement.

"Oh, hey hey you guys!" She tugged on my shirt and patted Jay on the shoulder.

"What?" He and I both said in unison.

"Well, Mikayla called me last night from China and--"

"Wait wait, hold up," Jay interrupted. "China? She's Korean..."

"I know that! She has to stop in China before she can come back to Washington."

"Oh, so she was in Korea during Winter Break?" I asked.

"Yes yes! Anyways, really really heavy snow in China caused her flight to delay so she won't be here today and she'll get back late tomorrow, so I promissed we'd take notes and get homework for her!" She said this in such a cheery voice, I wasn't sure if I was suppose to be happy or unsure about this situation.

"Ok? So what does that mean?" I asked.

"Well... Nothing really. She just told me to pass the information on to you." She smiled brightly.

   Jay and I slowly exchanged looks. Lisa is a pretty weird girl; I oh so dearly missed her random remarks during the break.

"Crap!" Jay let out.

"What?" I said in a worried tone.

"2 more minutes til the final bell, we need to go. Like now." He started down the hall.

   I quickly grabbed my necessary materials out of my locker and ran down the hall with Lisa. The two of us breezed by Jay as he stepped into Spanish Class and kept on going straight for the Art Studio.

"We're..! We're not gonna make it!" Lisa began to wheeze.

"Shut up! We'll make it!"

   None of us dared to check the time.. It would just make us panic. Instead we just kept charging for the door that seamed to plunge farther back the further we ran. Neither of us had ever been late to a class before, and we weren't about to start now.

   Running... Running... Is this hallway getting longer and longer or what?? I thought to myself as we dashed down the hall.

   At last, the huge black doors with the word "ART" painted in huge red letters on it was right in our reach. Lisa and I dove, expecting to crash open the doors, but instead we collided with a man.

"AH!!" The three of us screamed. And right at that second the bell rang.

"No! Crap!" I pounded on the ground. "We're late!"

  I turned to Lisa, thinking I'd see her face red with sadness and rage, but instead it was kind of pale.. She sat on the ground where she landed after the collision and stared up at the man we collided with. He was wearing a suit and dark shades.

"Lisa?" I looked at her, then the man, who seemed to take a step back. "I think you're scaring the guy." I sighed and walked over to pick her up.

When I bent over, she whispered in my ear, clearly loud enough for the guy in the suit to hear, "S-Sam, do you know who this guy is?"

"No, I don't know." I glanced at the guy real quick.

"Sam! That's B-Blue Generation's manager!" I heard her gasp, and when I looked at the guy again he sighed in displeasure.

"Darn, so my cover was blown huh." He took his shades off.. He didn't seem that old really, maybe 25, 26.

"Well," Lisa started as she got up. "It makes it pretty noticeable when you've got your name tag on Mr. Ray Koji." She smiled slyly.

   Ray Koji?! I was thinking, Sounds Asian.. But he looks American! His english is pretty good too! 

He flicked his name tag. "Yes, well, I see. I should think better next time."

"If I may ask," Lisa's tone became serious, like a business woman. "What are you doing here, Mr. Koji?"

"I'm not sure if I should be telling this to a fan." He smirked.

She put her hands on her hips. "Ok, how can you possibly tell right off the back that I'm a B.Gen fan, hm?"

"Well, you already know me, the manager... And I didn't necessarily say a B.Gen fan, now did I? I manage other bands too, you know."

"Oh darn.." I heard Lisa say under her breath.

"Exactly, now if you excuse me," he checked the time on his watch, "I really must be going now."

   But of course Missa Lissa (Jay came up with that nickname for when she gets serious) just had to stop the guy.

"Wait! Mr. Koji, if you can't tell me," I saw her eye me, and a smile lit up her face.

Oh boy... I thought and felt a slight sense of running away.

"Then why don't you tell my friend?" She pointed at me, and the Koji guy turned to face me. "She hates your band!"

"Well well, does she?" He seemed to find that funny and walked back towards me.

Ugh, why did she have to say it like that? I felt a little bad letting the group's manager know I didn't like his band.

He put his hand on my shoulder. "So really? You, you don't like my B.Gen? Or are you just saying."

I bit my lip. "No sir. I really don't like that trash band of yours. All they are is glam, but no talent. I'm sure you got some voice synthesizers to edit V's singing or whatever. And I swear the music is all computer-arranged."

   The Koji guy just looked at me, kind of in happy-shock.

"Hm," He chuckled. "Well Miss... Uh.."

"Sam. My name's Sam." I filled him in.

"Well Miss Sam, then I'll be glad to let you know." He looked at Lisa then whispered in my ear, "Just don't tell your friend, please."

"Trust me, if it's about your band, I probably won't. She wont shut up about them as it is."

He smiled. "Alright then, well... I'm here today at your school because I have a meeting with some of your staff and the principal today."

"Okay?" I tilted my head. "Why?"

"I have to disscuss some student transfer papers with them."

   At the minute he said 'student transfer' I felt like passing out. He couldn't possibly mean..

"Wait, hold up.. Students.. Transfering.. Oh, Mr. Koji.." I dazed up at him. He seemed to know what I was thinking, so he nodded.

"Yes, Miss Sam.." The next words he said, where the most shocking...

 

"Blue Generation.. Is transfering to this school. Starting next Monday."